GreenHeart™ - What makes a GreenHeart™

GreenHeart™

What makes a GreenHeart™

Many small steps. One giant leap.

Less packaging. No paper manual. Waterborne paint. Recycled plastics. A low-energy charger. It’s not how big each step is that matters. It’s the number of steps you take. Take reducing packaging, for instance. A small step for us, but it means we send more phones with each shipment. And replacing a paper manual with a digital e-manual saves paper. That mounts up to a lot of trees. Wouldn’t you agree?

From the start, with the launch of the Sony Ericsson C901™ GreenHeart™ in 2009, the intention has always been to broaden GreenHeart™ across the portfolio. For us GreenHeart™ is not a competition to produce the greenest products, it is an initiative to improve our entire portfolio. We want to ensure that every phone and accessory includes GreenHeart™ credentials and step-by-step we are working towards this goal.

Recycled Plastics

By using recycled plastics we’re giving water bottles and CDs a second home. Since recycling is far more environmental friendly and energy efficient than producing new plastics, this reduces the carbon footprint of our products and saves non-renewable resources.

We work hard to use recycled plastics in as many of our products as possible. Xperia™ Z3+ and Xperia™ Z4 launched in 2015, we have introduced SORPLAS™ in several internal plastic components. SORPLAS™ is a halogen free flame-retardant recycled plastic comprising polycarbonate plastic recycled from materials such as optical discs from discarded DVDs. This recycled material use Sony’s own unique sulfur-based flame retardant to achieve a highly durable, highly heat-resistant plastic that uses up to 99% recycled materials. Click here, to learn more about SORPLAS™.

More than 50 % of the hard plastic parts in the majority of our head phones are made of post consumer recycled plastics.

E-manual

We’ve replaced extended paper manuals with an electronic version in the phone, so it’s always there when you need it. And it helps us cut down on paper usage and transport. By replacing the standard manual in one million phones, we save 350 tonnes of paper. This equals 13,000 trees and 75,000 cubic metres of water.

Reduced Packaging

We’ve optimised the packaging of our phones to make them more eco-smart. The phones are packed in attractive yet smaller, lighter boxes to reduce the environmental impacts of transport and preserve precious natural resources. The smaller packaging allows us to send more phones within each shipment, cutting down CO2 emissions from transportation and saving non-renewable fuels. Our phone packaging boxes are made from paper and we are able to trace the origin of our virgin paper material. A large part of our packaging portfolio also has more than 50% recycled content and/or certified paper.

Whenever technically possible we use ink and varnish which is solvent-free and vegetable oil based ink. We have also introduced environmentally conscious packaging concepts for our accessory products and during 2011, we replaced our plastic blister packaging with other more energy efficient solutions.

Green Charger

Our standard chargers have a no-load power consumption that is ≤30mW. This means less power consumption. All our chargers are PVC free since the end of 2009.

Substance Control

We are committed to lead the market into phasing out hazardous substances and we are dedicated to continuing our work in this area.

For more information regarding Sony Mobile’s work with substance control please refer to Substances of concern.

We also supply environmental declarations for our phones in the Support section.

Green Applications

With Sony’s power management setting called Battery STAMINA Mode, you can extend the standby time of your Xperia™ device by more than four times. When the feature is turned on apps are not allowed to synchronise and check for notifications and incoming messages whenwhile the screen is off, something that normally consumes quite a lot of power while your phone is resting in your pocket.

Sony Mobile has also introduced Ultra STAMINA mode which extends battery lifetime significantly. You can use this mode when you know you won’t be able to charge your device for a very long time. Only a few basic functions, such as Phone and Messaging, are available when Ultra STAMINA mode is enabled.

To enable the Battery STAMINA and/or Ultra STAMINA mode, go to the Power Management menu in the Xperia™ phone’s or tablet’s settings.

Global Take-Back programme

Our Global Take-Back programme ensures that mobile phones do not end up in landfills. They are sent to recycling facilities specialised in mobile phone recycling. Components and materials can be used again, reducing the need to extract non-renewable resources and refine material for new products. This leads to a reduction in e-waste, saving resources, energy and chemicals.

In some countries we have also introduced a free-post or in-store solution can hand in their old products for recycling directly to us for free and be confident that all the precious metals are recycled according to best practice.